Homicide Hunter: Lt. Joe Kenda
I don't watch much television beyond the news, an occasional sports event or a special. But there is one series that I like and recommend on the Investigation Discovery (ID) channel. It's about murder and how to go about tracking down the bastards that commit it. It features a gravel voiced, no nonsense kind of guy called Joe Kenda. Here is the TV introduction:
Premise: Lt. Joe Kenda spent 23 years in the Colorado Springs Police Department, where he amassed a lifetime of memories catching killers and helping solve close to 400 homicide investigations. The vivid memories are brought back to life in this hour long series, as Kenda reopens his ``Murder Books' for viewers -- folders in which every detail of his murder cases is held -- to revisit the most disturbing cases still haunting him today. As he details the process of how he solved the crimes, Kendra also embarks on a personal journey, coming to terms with long-suppressed nightmares. As he says, ``I don't want to tell these stories. I need to.'
What makes this program different from a long list of shows in the genre of “Who Dunnits” is that it is real, with real killers, and real police, and a real super sleuth. You get to go along with Joe as he takes you from the scene of the crime down a finely tuned mental path as he pursues his quarry. He is not as glamorous as the typical holly wood actors, not as smooth in his delivery, but he is the “real deal.” He is smart as hell. And he tells you. “You want to play my game? I'm good at it.” About tough guys he says this: “I never met anyone yet who was bullet proof.”
And he makes each episode personal: “This in my territory. You don't play out your dirty deeds on my turf. I will track you down. I don't care how long it takes.”
He's frumpy, a little arrogant, a little brag, a little swag, but he has a mind like a steel trap. As an example shortly after arriving on the scene in a shopping mall on the outskirts of town in a quiet neighborhood, his quick assessment: “We have the dead body of an elderly man, who was on foot, alone, shot with a .25 caliber hand gun, and there are 18 condoms scattered on the ground 50 feet away.” He looks into the camera and asks: “What does all this mean? I don't have even any idea. But I am going to find out.” Within 10 minutes he has two young men in captivity who didn't have a snowball's chance in hell against Kenda. He not only solved the crime of who did it, he found the murder weapons, and solved the mystery of the scattered condoms. And when the leader of the pack tried to outwit him in the interrogation room, he got a confession out of him in less than 15 minutes by his superior logic and analytical abilities.
Joe Kenda. My kind of guy. If we only had a few more like him.
